English Romantic Songs and Ballads

for voice with original guitar accompaniments from
the period

edited and with an introduction by Brian Jeffery

The complete introduction, by Brian Jeffery

This small anthology of English ballads of the early nineteenth
century has been one of the most popular Tecla publications since it
first appeared in 1983. Because of continuing interest, the book is
now reprinted, with only small changes to this introduction.

The ballads in this book are art songs, that is to say original
compositions by composers of this period. They are usually to a new
literary text, and they usually have nothing to do with folk-songs,
which are of a different nature and have a different social
connotation. A further distinction must also be made: they are not
quite the same as the Victorian "drawing-room" ballad, which
dates from the later part of the century. These songs from the earlier
part of the century, written before Victoria came to the throne in
1837, are subtly different: to my ear at least they are sturdier, less
maudlin, participating still in an eighteenth-century tradition.

It would be true to say that the ballads of that time were among
the most popular forms of music of their day. Published in their
thousands, they reached and touched most people, and their appeal was
enormous. Their sentiments often appeal to us to this day, and songs
of a very similar nature are still performed by singers with enormous
success on stage and television. Sometimes their sentiments seem
exaggerated in the context of today's taste, but nevertheless most
ballads are stories of love with a charming simplicity and a splendid
melodic gift that can easily and gladly be surrendered to today. The
best of them are works of art that, beyond any question, deserve to be
taken seriously.

English ballads of the early nineteenth century were published at
the time, and until now have been almost exclusively known, in
versions for voice and piano. But that is only because it was a viable
way to market them, on practical and financial grounds. In fact, they
were most often first performed on a stage with orchestra, and that is
the form in which the public would have first known them. "Sung
with unbounded applause by Mr. or Mrs. X", as it so often says on
the title-page, means sung with orchestral accompaniment. When we
think of a ballad, therefore, it is as a song performed on stage with
orchestra that we should first think of it. However, in the days
before sound recordings, the publishers provided versions for voice
with piano accompaniment so that the songs could be recreated in the
drawing-room, and those versions with piano have survived, whereas the
orchestral accompaniments are heard no more.

But there was also another very common way in which the ballad
could be taken home and recreated in the drawing-room: namely, with
guitar accompaniment. The guitar accompaniments were made by
professional guitarists, men such as Sola, Eulenstein, or Verini, and
they were usually issued by the same publishers who brought out the
versions with piano, and at the same time or within a year or so. We
have no way of telling how many copies were printed. But over the last
century and a half, between 1840 and our own times, the guitar sank in
popularity while the piano maintained its position, with the result
that the guitar versions were quite simply thrown away to the point
that guitar music of the early nineteenth century in England is now
rare. Published catalogues show that much was printed. I have carried
out extensive research in public and private libraries, and many items
which are known to have been printed have not been found. But from
what has emerged, it had been possible to put together the present
anthology. For singers and guitarists alike, it is an Aladdin's cave
of a repertory which until now has been completely unpublished in
modern editions and which to most people was not even known to have
existed.

This is not the place to go into the history of the English ballad
in this period. The biographies of composers such as Bishop, Moore,
Barnett, Bayly, and Horn, are easily available in the standard
reference books. An outline of the musical genre may be found in Music
in Britain: The Romantic Age 1800-1914, edited by Nicholas Temperley,
which appeared in 1981, and many detailed notes are in Michael R.
Turner's The Parlour Song Book and Just a Song at Twilight (London,
1972 and 1975), which are anthologies of songs and ballads with piano
including both early and late nineteenth century songs. It is likely
that with the growing interest in English music of this period, more
musicological work will be done on the subject.

The guitars used in England at that time were made by the Panormo
family in London, by Lacote in Paris, and by very many other makers of
similar models, some made in England and some imported, particularly
from France. These guitars did not on the whole have the sharp treble
of modern nylon-strung guitars, and accordingly it will be noticed
that the accompaniments in this book do not emphasize the treble as
much as some modern accompaniments do. But these Panormos and Lacotes
usually carried better than many modern instruments and they gave a
greater clarity in the inner voices. Such, at least, is my own
experience: I played a Lacote with gut strings in concerts for several
years and its clarity and carrying power yielded nothing to modern
guitars. On the other hand, there is evidence to suggest that modern
singers are trained to sing more heavily than singers in the early
nineteenth century, perhaps through the necessity of being heard
through the weight of the orchestra all of whose instruments have
become so much heavier since Beethoven's time. It is desirable, in
performing these ballads, that the singer should scale down his or her
volume in order to achieve a balance with the instrument. If the
singer and the guitarist are one person, as was certainly often the
case at the time, so much the better.

This is (as far as I know) the first time that any of these songs
in their guitar versions have been published in a modern edition. It
is a pleasure to thank those who have assisted in the exploration of
this virgin territory: the antiquarian music dealers who enabled me to
acquire copies, the collectors and librarians who gave me every
assistance, the singers and guitarists who tried out examples in
concerts in Scandinavia. After the first edition of this book in 1983,
there have been a modest number of performances and recordings, but
there is still room for more. Many a guitarist and singer will find
the public receptive indeed.

Both singer and guitarist are encouraged to ornament their parts,
especially at cadences. It is true that as yet relatively little is
known about ornamentation technique in the early nineteenth century,
but the early music movement is rapidly extending itself forward into
that period, and its techniques of investigation can fruitfully be
applied. One song in this collection is of particular interest in this
regard: Alexander Lee's "Come where the aspens quiver",
where large amounts of written-out ornamentation are included. It can
certainly be used as a model for other songs.

The original fingering has been kept. The symbol + on notes on the
sixth course means that the note in question was intended to be
stopped with the left hand thumb, and in "The broken hearts"
a barré is indicated to be performed by the little finger of the left
hand. The player can of course feel free to change such things if he
or she so wishes.

For information on English music publishers at this period, see
Charles Humphries and William C. Smith, Music Publishing in the
British Isles, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1970), and O.W. Neighbour and Alan
Tyson, English Music Publishers' Plate Numbers in the First Half of
the Nineteenth Century (London, 1965).

The production of this book has involved a good deal of research.
It is permissible to photocopy pages for the purpose of performances
in which you yourself are a participant, but apart from that, you are
asked not to impede sales of the book by photocopying it. Photocopying
is, in any case, illegal and can result in prosecution. Please bear in
mind that further copies of this book are readily and quickly
available at a reasonable price from book and music shops worldwide or
direct from the publisher at www.tecla.com.

Some of the songs in this book come from my own collection. Others
come from the collections of the late Robert Spencer, the late John
Canning, the British Library, and the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama, to all of whom I am deeply grateful for their assistance and
cooperation.